Climate Strike: thousands protest over climate inaction

Thousands of students across the country took to the streets today as part of the global school strike movement urging the Government to adopt immediate and effective climate policy.

The main march in Ireland took off from the Custom House in Dublin at midday, moving through the city centre to Merrion Square, where thousands of students gathered for a rally outside Government buildings.

Signs made by the schoolkids urged the Government to take action, telling powerholders that “you’re burning our future” and that “nobody’s allowed ruin my future but me”.

The youthful protesters’ chanted for immediate steps to be taken by our politicians to stop fossil fuel extraction and to push for “system’s change, not climate change”.

The country remains well off-track in meeting its 2020 and 2030 targets according to EPA data and the 2019 Climate Change Performance Index released last December singled out Ireland as the worst-performing country in Europe for addressing climate change for the second consecutive year.

Beth Doherty, one of the students involved in organising the march, said that students are back in the streets to try and get people in power “to wake up and do their jobs and save the only planet we can survive on”.

“This strike boils down to us wanting to have a future, to me being able to get to 30 without having passed the point of no return for saving our planet,” she added.

“The climate crisis is no longer abstract, it isn’t far-off glaciers or however many species have died. It is right here, right now and it will affect every single one of our lives no matter who you are, where you come from, or what political office you hold.”

Reading a poem to the crowd, Lucy Holmes said that the students “rise like the never-ending tide and grow tall like the trees” and “will keep on shouting until the whole world hears our pleas”

“How do we survive in this world covered by fear, know that we need change and that change begins here,” she said, concluding her poem.

Students were joined by parents and other adults who support the movement, as well as many civil society groups, environmental NGOs and trade unions.

Today’s strike comes six months on from the first international action in March, which saw over 10,000 students from across the country protest in front of the Dail.

Climate strike in Dublin September 2019 Photo: Niall Sargent

Cross-country support

Alongside major rallies in Dublin, Cork, Galway, Limerick, almost 70 local communities took place to support student-led groups such as Fridays for Future Ireland and the Schools Climate Action Network.

In Blessington, for example, students from local schools marched through the town, with local businesses sharing support on social media. At 11am, church bells rang out 11 times to show solidarity with the students.

Áine O’Gorman, an activism support coordinator for Stop Climate Chaos who was worked closely with students in the build-up to the day of action, praised the level of support seen across the country.

“From students like Theo Mouze travelling from Clare Island to
retired women mobilising in Dundrum, thousands of people of all ages and occupations
will be on the streets across Ireland supporting the students’ call for strong
climate action,” she said.

Weekly strikes are held across the country, and according to Shona Edge, a student from Temple Carrig in Greystones, Co. Wicklow, they will “only continue”.

“If we do not point
out the fatal flaws in the government’s approach on climate action, who will?”
she said. “We want to disrupt the system that disrupts our futures,” she
added.

The US is expected to see 800 protests across the country, with New York’s protest led by Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg as the city prepares to host the United Nations Climate Action Summit next week.

Greta started the student climate strike movement last year when she began protesting on the steps of her parliament, demanding that her government do more to address the climate crisis.

The first climate march from Custom House to Government Buildings was just before the UN Copenhagen sunmit in 2009. Fewer than 1,000 people took part.

Fridays for Future,
one of the organising group behind the youth climate uprising in Ireland, said
that while the movement will remain youth-led they “really want adults to get
behind us and support the climate movement at this strike”.

Numerous environmental
and climate NGOs, together with religious groupings, civil society groups, aid
organisations and trade unions have all pledged their support to the youth
movement.

Many Irish universities and academics have also outlined
their support, with UCD and DCU both openly encouraging staff and students to come
out and join solidarity marches on campus.

In addition, several Irish academics have signed an international
open letter “wholeheartedly” supporting the global climate strike movement
whose concerns rest on “solid, incontrovertible evidence” of a climate
breakdown.

Speaking to The
Green News last night, Dr Joseph Curtin, a member of the Climate Change
Advisory Council, said that our kids are “looking us in the eye and saying ‘you
need to act’.”

“Their whole lives are going to be affected by what we’re doing to the atmosphere and the climate and what we’re doing to biodiversity,” he said.

Climate strike in Dublin September 2019 Photo: Niall Sargent

List of demands

Actions demanded by
Irish young protesters can be found on a few different websites, but all sing
the same tune: Ireland must do its part in a global effort to radically reduce emissions.

A week before the
first international school strike in March, students met with politicians to
map out what policy changes they are seeking.

The Irish movement is
asking the Government to communicate the severity
of the climate crisis to the public and to build school curriculums that convey
it to students of all ages.

A transition to a
carbon-neutral Ireland must be “socially fair” and stronger regulations on
corporations directly responsible for causing the climate crisis should be
implemented.

Students also want to
see policy moves that will deeply reduce emissions from the agricultural that
currently accounts for one-third of the state’s total emissions footprint.

The movement is asking
the Government to enact all the recommendations
of the Citizen’s Assembly on Climate Change and to implement a Green New Deal
for Ireland.

The state should also
ensure that once students have left school they can have “livelihoods that
don’t damage the Earth”.

Finally, students have demanded that all fossil fuel supplies be left in the ground, that no new fossil fuel infrastructure construction take place, and that Ireland has 100 per cent renewable electricity supply by 2030.

About the Author

Kayle Crosson

Kayle is a multimedia journalist focused on climate and environmental issues and contributes to The Irish Times and The Green News.